Spacecraft Info Group

Description

Manufacturer:

Academy of Science of the USSR

Model:

Sputnik

Year:

1956

Lear Gallery

Yes

The Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite-Sputnik 1-aboard an R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile on October 4, 1957. The satellite traveled at 18,000 miles per hour (28,980 km/hr), according to Soviet calculations, and its radio signals were picked up by scientists and ham radio operators throughout the world.

The signals continued until the transmitter batteries ran down on October 26, 1957. Sputnik 1 orbited about 37 million miles (60 million km), then burned up as it fell from orbit during reentry into Earth's atmosphere on January 4, 1958.

The Museum of Flight's Sputnik 1 was a contemporary technological duplicate, most probably manufactured by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.